[Paramour]

Jon,

Welcome! I'm new too. I've been dabbling in the publishing slush for a bit with my first novel. I've decided to go without an agent and have found that if you search cleverly, you can find publishing houses that will accept unsolicited material. Notably, DAW and TOR publishing houses, since they are the biggest that accept unsolicited (actually, I think those two are some of the biggest fantasy takers in the business).

Some places wont take you into consideration without an agent (penguin, random house -minus some imprints, hapercollins). Agents can be wonderful assets to any writer looking to get published. They have contacts and loads of good advice. You've got to be exceptionally careful about scams, though. Make sure that if you begin soliciting for an agent, you look up their qualifications, references, anything you can about them.

Good luck!!
<3 Paramour